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Self Petting Station

About: Me? I just love building this, fixing that, and on the rare occasion creating stuff. I really enjoy repurposing the things I find and collect while working. Pre-enrolled into the Ohio State Engineering ...
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This is a fun little project that can be completed in an hour or two depending on what you have laying around the house. It's a self-petting station for your cats so that they can get a good back scratching while you're at work or away on vacation. I found the Ad while looking for toys to keep my cats active, I hate seeing them board. Here is a link to the original Ad; http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3261+1897+26492&pcatid=26492 . As you can see in the Ad, they want $18 for this product. I made mine for about $6.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

Here are the things you will need: 1. 2 toilet bowl brushes, the best color you can find. 2. A board roughly 12"x12", any shape you like. 3. A small block of wood 1"x1"x1", any shape you like. 4. Fabric or carpet to cover the board. 5. A drill and a set of drill bits. 6. Guerrilla Glue (the kind that expands) or Hot Glue. 7. Staple gun, this is optional. 8. Spraypaint, this is optional. 9. A yardstick. 10. A sharpie.

Step 2: Disassemble the Toilet Brushes

The first thing you will want to do is remove the brushes from the handles.

Step 3: Make a Spacer

When you have removed the brushes, you will notice bare wire on either end of each brush. These sections of bare wire will be used to connect the two brushes together. Get your small block of wood, mine is a piece of closet hanger rod as you can see. Drill a hole through the center, large enough for both brush ends to fit through. Paint or stain this now if you want to.

Step 4: Connect the Brushes

Squeeze some glue onto one end of each brush. Put one brush end through one side of the hole, and the other through the opposite side. Now you have one long brush.

Step 5: Make the Base Board

Take your base board and staple or glue the fabric or carpet to it.

Step 6: Holes for the Brushes

Line up your yardstick from corner to opposite corner, diagonally across the base board. Find the center of the board. Measure out about 4" to 5" on either side of center and make a small mark with a sharpie. Drill a hole through the board at each Sharpie mark using a bit big enough to fit one brush end through.

Step 7: Connect the Brushes to the Base Board

Now squeeze some glue onto each brush end and fit them into the holes on the baseboard. When the glue dries, you're finished. To introduce it to your cat/cats, sprinkle some cat nip on it, sit back and enjoy!

I made this for my two cats who are brothers, one weighs 6 1/2 pounds and the other one 18 pounds. The disparity in weight made some modification necessary. I used two spare 11 inch square pieces of plywood glued together for the base to hold the brushes, then had to attach a main platform and hot glued the base to that to accommodate the larger cat who kept knocking the smaller based unit over. They seem to really like it.

Sorry for the late reply; did you manage to get them apart? There really is no easy or pretty way to get the brushes out. Smash, cut, grind the plastic handle from the brush wires. I used a pair of diagonal wire cutters to cut away the plastic. A Dremel would also work.

Really. Burmese don't respond to catnip!? I thought all cats enjoyed the effects of the smell. Well, I think it's possible he might figure it out on his own but I doubt it. Thank you very much for reading though. How do you get him to play with toys?

At 18, he's not exactly the most playful, but when he plays he plays rough. He'll even run up behind me and nip me in the heel to start some rough-housing, but has always had little interest in toys and has even figured out that chasing the laser dot isn't the fun it once was, although if he's in the right mood I can still get him jumping halfway up the wall trying to catch it.

While I disagree with you about Siamese, I can't wait to make one for my Mr. E. Bean who is not a Siamese and is indifferent to catnip also. The Siamese I had growing up LOVED catnip. I guess it's an individual thing.

I've been thinking about making one of these but my only concern is the bottom of the board, meaning the underside that touches the floor.

Do the wire brush ends go right through the holes & scrape the floor at all?

Or are the holes more shallow, and if so, any trouble with them popping out?

I have 1 of those all start track/soccer cats who runs around at full speed, diving into his toys/furniture … I lay a nice pillow bed out in the living room and come home to find it upside down in the bathroom… can't help but worry that he would flip this thing and fling the wires out or carving drag marks across the hardwood :-/

Hi NorEaster, and welcome to Instructables. To answer your two questions, the holes go all the way through the base board but the wires are glued almost all the through the base. This is perfectly acceptable for carpeted floors, and no, they haven't popped out... yet. ;)

My suggestion for you would be to use two identical boards for the base, one that has holes for the wires and one that you will glue to the bottom of the first board. This will guaranty that the wires won't touch the floor and it will add extra weight making it harder for your speed machine to move it or tip it.

I would also suggest either carpeting the underside (I think that would be great protection for the wood floor, but it might slide a little more), or put dome-like spots of hot glue on the fabric in each of the four corners of the bottom side, making rubberized feet that will lift the whole thing slightly off of the wood floor (the hot glue will stabilize it pretty well, but it might tip over more easily)

Ooooh! Thanks so much for the response! These are some good ideas, I think I'm gonna combine a couple. Maybe the glue domes over any wire thats poking through, then the carpeting on the whole underside. That way it wont scratch the floor or expose any rough/sharp parts if he ends up flipping it or using it as a skateboard... I'll have the camera on standby haha